Bismarck weekly tribune., 1887-09-30
THE ANARCHIST CONSPIRACY.

At meeting of the workingmen in st.
Paul Saturday, which was attended
by thousands of laborers of all
trades, resolution denouncing the de-
cision of the Illinois supreme court in
the anarchist conspiracy case was intro
duced, and although vigorously opposed
by strong minority, was finally passed.
The resolution in substance declared that
it had not been proven that the con-
demned anarchists had anything to do
with the bomb throwing. In other cities
similar resolutions have been passed
not with the vote of intelligent men, loyal
to the government and to the flag, but by
hot-headed and ignorant agitators, who
listen neither to argument or reason. Let
us see what the statement of the details
of the conspiracy by the supreme court
comprises. For over six months it had
the complete record of the proceedings of
the lower court in it's charge. It went
through every line of the testimony care
fully and sifted out the chaff. The scat
tered fragments are all together and
every link is in it's place. With over
whelming certainty the supreme judges
have established this conspiracy, located
its purpose, pursued it to the very time
and place, and demonstrated it's terrible
result.
The narrative of the judges begins
with the bomb itself as the hideus nu-
cleus of the conspiracy. They show that
it was round, consisting of two semi
globes fastened by bolt; that it was ex-
ploded by means of projecting fuse
which must be lighted externally; that it
was of compost material, tin and lead,
with traces of antimony, iron and zinc
tin being mixed with lead to furnish the
proper degree of resistance to the dyna-
mite; that this material is not a CONNER
cial article, and that it had an iron nut
with thread fitting the screw end of the
bolt in the bomb. They show that these
four characteristics of the bomb existed
in large numbers of the bombs made by
Lingg. They further show in this con-
nection that he with others made these
very bombs and loaded them with dyna-
mite; that he carted them about with him
and distributed them, and that he in
tended to throw one of them into patrol
wagon. They leave no doubt that the
bomb which killed Degan was one of the
bombs made by Lingg.
From this point they pass to the object
of making these bombs. They establish
the existence of the internationals with
their organs-the Alarm and the Ar
beiter-Zeitung their bureaus of infor-
nation, and their murderous purposes.
They show that they we're divided into
armed and unarmed groups, as well as
the Lehr and Wehr Verein, the best
drilled of the armed sections, and that
all the defendants belong to them; that
they were represented by certain leaders
who had their headquarters in the Ar
beiter-zeitung Office, and that the princi-
pal persons who shaped their policy and
issued orders to them we're these defend
ants. They then show by numerous cita-
tions from the papers edited by Spies,
Schwab and Parsons, and from speeches
made by all the defendants that for two
years previous to the massacre they had
persistently and systematically urged
upon these groups, as we'll as working
. men generally, that they should arm
themselves with revolvers, rifles and
bombs, and use them against the police
and militia. Such was the general nature
of the conspiracy.
The next step in the narrative shows it's
relation to the massacre. They prove
that these leaders fixed upon the LIST of
May as the date of the uprising by cita-
tions from their speeches, their newspa-
per articles and the resolutions passed
by the armed groups to which they be-
longed; that they prepared for it by pur-
chasing arms and other necessary mater
ial; that they commissioned Lingg to
make the bombs, as they could not be
bought; that Lingg did make them; that
the one which exploded at the haymarket
was made by him in furtherance of the
conspiracy, and that he distributed them
among the groups. Coming to the mas
.sacre itself, they show that after the riot
at McCormack's took place Monday,
May 3rd, Spies issued his revenge circu-
lar, and that in the evening certain of the
conspirators met and perfected their
plans. At that meeting it was agreed
upon Engel's suggestion that a bomb
should be thrown into each police station
and then the policemen should be shot
down as they came out, but this part of
the conspiracy had to be modified for
sufficient reasons; that the publication of